The Occupy movement that started in 2011 focusing on world wealth inequality.

Photo: Bloomberg

The global elite currently control around 50 per cent of wealth world wide, but that is likely to keep going up, the Commons research, commissioned by Labour MP Liam Byrne, stated.

If trends seen since the 2008 financial crash were to continue, the report notes, the mentioned 1 per cent will control 64 per cent of global wealth in only 12 years time.

According to the Guardian, which first reported the statistics, the wealth of the richest 1 per cent “has been growing at an average of 6 per cent a year – much faster than the 3 per cent growth in wealth of the remaining 99 per cent of the world’s population,” since the world financial crisis.

If the trend continues, the 1 per cent will have a total net worth of $US305 trillion ($393 trillion), more than double the $US140 trillion they now control in 2018.

“If we don’t move quickly to rewrite the rules of how our economies work, then we condemn ourselves to a future that remains unequal for good,” Byrne, the report’s commissioner said.

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“That’s morally bad, and economically disastrous, risking a new burst in instability, corruption and poverty.”

Last year, Swiss lender Credit Suisse published a report which found that the world’s richest 1 per cent of families and individuals already hold over half of global wealth, and argued that inequality is still getting worse almost a decade after the worst global recession since the 1930s.

“The bottom half of adults collectively own less than 1 per cent of total wealth, the richest decile (top 10 per cent of adults) owns 88 per cent of global assets, and the top percentile alone accounts for half of total household wealth,” the Credit Suisse report said.

Put another way: “The top 1 per cent own 50.1 per cent of all household wealth in the world.”